In this episode of Nothing Ventured, host Aarish Shah sits down with Adam Shuaib, GP at Episode 1 Ventures, the early-stage fund using data and AI to spot founders before everyone else.

From scraping GitHub and Twitter to building behavioural models that detect grit over gloss, Adam explains how Episode 1’s machine is changing how venture capital discovers talent — and why “weird” founders often hold the biggest alpha.

We dive into:

⚙️ How data models are finding unconventional founders

🚫 Why filtering out the “weird” kills innovation

💭 The ethics of AI-driven sourcing

📊 Why alpha is always in the tail end of the distribution

🌍 The concentration of global capital and Europe’s rise

💡 How Episode 1 balances data with human intuition

If you’re building the next big thing or investing in it — this one’s for you.

🎧 Subscribe for more conversations that uncover the real stories behind venture capital.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro: Aarish Shah & Adam Shuaib

00:45 – Episode 1’s AI engine for founder discovery

02:30 – Signal vs. surveillance in VC

05:00 – Finding grit over gloss

07:00 – Adversity as a founder trait

10:30 – Alpha lives in the middle

12:00 – Keeping humans in the loop

18:00 – The AI compute arms race

21:00 – Why NVIDIA always wins

28:30 – The barbell future of VC

32:00 – Europe’s rising edge in venture

38:00 – Hype, unicorns & valuation bubbles

41:30 – Measuring grit, not trauma

46:00 – Why most VCs shouldn’t exist

49:00 – The human side of venture

Find Adam Shuaib online at:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamshuaib/

Twitter: https://x.com/Episode1VC

Episode 1 Ventures: https://www.episode1.com/

This episode is sponsored by EmergeOne, fractional CFOs for venture backed tech startups from Seed to Series B.

Get in touch at https://emergeone.co.uk/contact-us/ or join the CFO team at https://emergeone.co.uk/join-the-cfo-team/

Sign up for EmergeOne’s weekly newsletter, Off Balance at https://off-balance.beehiiv.com/subscribe

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